Andrew Danso

It smacks at a surprise, just how far doom has progressed over the past two decades. The style of the genre inside of the eighties and nineties wasn’t much slower in tempo than its post-Sabbath rowdies, it was simply much more progressive throughout the era - doom back then wasn’t lauded for its lack of energy, but how everything put together was done with a greater intelligence, than something fronted with speedy guitar heroes and daft haircuts.

How does the critic judge what was back then genius, to now be old, shrivelled and stale? Is it churlish to assume that Solitude Aeternus have never bothered to release the rare Justice For All cassette of '88, until now, because it wasn’t that great? Since their strong reputation follows in 2011, does it nervously have a leg to stand on? DVD extras can be charming, but there’s good reason why they never made the final cut, and after all, this is a remastered demo – like a movie director showing us the final version of his or her film stuck in the pre-production stage.

Accentuating the past for oldies is In Times Of Solitude’s only triumph, as offering newcomers nothing fresh or radical other than different arrangements of a brand of metal that’s been laid to rest - for good reason – is an obvious disappointment. This late eighties demo has very little gold tucked away; much more of a history lesson than something of hidden treasure.

6/10 Powerplay issue #135